Less than 24 hours after his second-seeded Redwood Rangers outlasted No. 3 Lemoore 7-5 in a boys water polo semifinal overtime win, head coach Major Rogers and his team was back in the pool preparing for the Central Section Division II championship game.

Redwood will be making its fourth consecutive appearance in a Valley final. The defending section champion Rangers (17-9) collide with the No. 1 Porterville Panthers (29-1) on Saturday in the Division II finale at Granite Hills High School. Game time is 1 p.m.

Sitting on the metal bleachers west of Frank Bell Community Pool on Thursday, Rogers reflected on the Rangers’ roller-coaster journey while overseeing practice.

After graduating all seven starters from last season’s Division II championship team, Rogers and many in the local water polo community assumed this season was going to be a rebuilding year for the Rangers.

Even Rogers, himself, told the team before the season began that this year’s team was the least talented squad he’s coached in the past four years.

That wasn’t a knock on the players.

Since 2013, the Rangers have enjoyed a wave of success.

That season, the Rangers went 25-3 and captured an outright West Yosemite League championship. They advanced to the Division II final, but fell 7-5 to Tulare Union.

In 2014, the Rangers posted a perfect 27-0 record heading into the finale, including an unblemished 12-0 mark in WYL play, but suffered their only loss of the season in the Division II championship game — a 7-5 defeat to Golden West.

The Rangers claimed a share of the WYL crown en route to the Division II championship. They knocked off Porterville 10-8 to clinch their first section title since 1987.

Rogers didn’t expect this year’s team to repeat that kind of success considering he had a crew of unproven players.

But the Redwood skipper challenged his Rangers, asking them to put in the necessary work to meet the program’s high expectations — competing for a WYL title and section crown.

And the players made a commitment, dedicated themselves and had trust in the process.

From there, things starting falling slowly into place.

At one point this season, Rogers even held practice at 3 a.m. in the morning, and his players showed up ready to go.

“We have the bar set really high for the players, and what that meant was that they had to work twice as hard as any of my [previous] groups have,” Rogers said. “And they have. As a result of it, they got themselves back in the championship game. I’m really impressed with them. ... They have a lot of pride in themselves and in the program and in what we’re doing. They’re buying into the term ‘Dynasty’. They’re starting to earn that, arguably. They push each other to reach that. No one’s allowed to get away with slacking on this team, and that’s not even me as a coach saying that. That’s them holding each other accountable for what their goals are. I’ll be darn if they didn’t reach it.”

The Rangers have won six straight and haven’t lost a match since Oct. 14.

The Rangers are anchored by seniors Drew Parsley and Jared Cook, who have both been playing on the varsity level since their sophomore seasons. Parsley is the team’s leading goal scorer.

Two other key figures are sophomore Cade Batchman and junior goalie Koby Ramage.

Ramage has picked up where his older brother, Josh, left off. Josh was the goalkeeper of last year’s championship team.

“He’s one of the best goalies in the Valley this year,” Rogers said of Koby. “And I’m going to say that next year, he’ll be the best goalie in the Valley of all divisions.”

Redwood met an experienced Porterville squad in its season opener on Aug. 29.

In that match, with a majority of first-year starters, the Rangers fell 15-8.

“That’s when we were very green and nervous,” Rogers said. “That first quarter, it just showed. We went in scared and Porterville went for the throat right off the bat. The second half, we calmed down and we played, and it was much more of a game, so if we can go in calm and confident on Saturday, it can be a whole different game.”

The Panthers’ lone loss, 8-7, came to Garces Memorial in overtime on Halloween.

They have outscored their opponents 478-166 this season.

In comparison, the Rangers have netted 250 goals while allowing 197.

“We have nothing to lose,” Rogers said. “We’re all very happy and honored to be in this game. ... Win or lose, as long as they give me everything they have, that’s all I care about. That being said, we can go in and have a lot of fun. And I think being relaxed is what we weren’t the first time we played them. The second half of that game was very close.

“It’s going to be very interesting. I’m not tensed. I’m not going to go in there fired up, so to speak. We’re going to go in there and enjoy the day, enjoy the game and we’re going to enjoy an end of a season that these guys went farther than a lot of people expected them to.”

The Pioneers earned a 3-0 triumph on Oct. 7 and completed the regular-season sweep with a 9-5 victory over the Pirates on Oct. 28. Both matches were contested during tournament play.

Mt. Whitney has won five in a row. Reedley captured an absolute North Yosemite League crown.

How to attend

The Central Section boys and girls championship games will be played on Saturday at various locations. In the boys Division II final, No. 2 Redwood travels to face No. 1 Porterville at Granite Hills High School. Game time is 1 p.m. Top-seeded El Diamante hosts No. 3 Redwood at El Diamante High School for the Central Section Division II girls championship match. Game time is 10 a.m. In the girls Division III finale, No. 1 Mt. Whitney hosts No. 2 Reedley at Golden West High School. Game time is 1 p.m.